She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she barely heard the single word, and only slowly turned to face the Sheikh. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me,’ she said.
‘This has been a shock for you.’
‘That’s no answer,’ she said tensely.
Happy sounds from the party rose all around them, mocking her state of mind. This was bizarre, tense and horrible. Learning details about that night, while she was battling feelings she shouldn’t even have for this man, left her swamped in sadness and tortured by guilt. She couldn’t stop thinking that if only she’d been older and more authoritative at the time of her mother’s death, maybe she could have saved her.
‘My brother could always find women to entertain him,’ Sheikh Khalid was saying. ‘It’s not surprising that he lost interest in your mother’s whereabouts.’
‘As you did,’ she flared.
‘I put guards on watch,’ he reminded her.
‘They couldn’t have been much good,’ she observed acidly.
‘Your mother asked to use the facilities, and of course they let her go.’
‘In a drunken state on board a yacht without following her?’ Millie exclaimed. ‘That sounds like gross dereliction of duty to me.’
‘You weren’t there,’ the Sheikh interrupted. ‘Therefore, you’re in no position to pass judgement on my staff. I’m satisfied they did all they could.’
‘How can you say that?’ Millie demanded hotly. ‘I’ve been followed every step of the way since I boarded the Sapphire, yet you’re asking me to believe my mother could wander at will.’
‘As I’ve tried to explain, times were different, and there were no witnesses.’
‘But someone must have seen something,’ she insisted.
Ignoring her interruption, the Sheikh continued. ‘I was clearing the grand salon at the time of your mother’s disappearance. Saif had tried to have me thrown off the Sapphire, but his guards had refused to do this. They supported me rather than my brother, though even with their help it still took time for all the guests to leave. As soon as I was free, I went to look for your mother. I wondered at first if she’d returned to my brother, but his attendants hadn’t seen her. I can only conclude she slipped away with the rest of the guests leaving the ship.’
‘So, you’re saying your brother had nothing to do with my mother’s death.’
‘That’s what I told the authorities.’
That’s no answer, she thought. ‘I can see it would be convenient for you to hear nothing and see nothing.’
‘Have you finished?’ he asked coldly.
‘Why? Are you going to have me drummed off the ship?’
‘No part of this tragedy could ever be described as convenient,’ the Sheikh assured her.
‘For your brother, then,’ Millie said.
‘My brother’s dead.’
‘And does that absolve him from blame? If you’re saying he deserves respect, simply because he’s no longer with us, then so does my mother. And you might as well know, I intend to clear her name—’
‘That’s as it should be,’ he said.
‘What’s the point in talking further?’ Millie asked. ‘You’re not going to tell me anything.’
‘You’re leaving?’
She’d thought about it. ‘No,’ she said, ‘not unless you have me thrown off. Eight years ago my mother had no one to protect her, but now she does, and I’m not a biddable teenager who’ll go home when she’s told.’
‘You have always defended her,’ he said with the closest to admiration he’d come yet.
‘I trusted you,’ she said quietly. Lose her temper lose the battle, Miss Francine had always said, and the Sapphire provided valuable business for the laundry. Millie must manage her quest for justice and look at the bigger picture.
They stared at each other unblinking for a few moments, which was as troubling as it was a sign of Millie’s intent. Her determination to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her mother’s death had crossed her path with that of a man whose potent persona was wreaking havoc on her control. There was no such thing as a meaningless glance where the Sheikh was concerned. He could convey more in a look than any book of words, and his dark eyes suggested an agreement of a very different kind, one that had no connection with the past, and everything to do with the here and now.
MILLIE WAS RIDICULOUSLY appealing and passions were high. Drawing her close, Khalid looped an arm around her waist and tipped up her chin until their mouths were only a hair’s breadth apart.
‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ she flared.
Her struggles only brought them closer. This first, real physical contact between them was an incendiary device to his senses. His greedy flesh was aroused to the point of agony. She rested, panting, for a moment, blazing her defiance into his eyes. A lithe young flame to his dark, smouldering passion, she was as much a slave as he to primitive forces that made her eyes shoot sparks of fury at him, even as they darkened.
‘You’re to blame for all of this!’ she raged. Reaching up, she seized hold of his shoulders, which only brought them closer together.
He held her at arm’s length. ‘I think you’re overwrought.’
Savouring her fresh, clean scent while she vibrated with awareness beneath his hands, he thought, Not yet. She was all eagerness, and ready to channel her anger into a different sort of passion, but he favoured trial by frustration. Pleasure delayed was pleasure enhanced. She deserved nothing less.
He was actually considering seducing her?
Yes. It seemed inevitable, though his family had destroyed hers, and he had no doubt that coming back to the Sapphire and reliving that night had made her hate him. But hate was a strange and adaptable emotion. His desire to protect her was as strong as ever, but the desire to make love to her was even stronger, Millie’s passion could change into something very different. Gently, but firmly, he removed her hands from his body and stepped back. He could not have predicted her reaction.
‘Don’t,’ he rapped as she covered her face with her hands. ‘You have nothing to feel guilty about.’
‘Don’t I?’ she said bitterly, raising her chin. ‘Not even when those feelings involve you?’
She shocked him with words that sounded wrenched from her soul. Her frankness had always been Millie’s greatest appeal, he reminded himself as he observed, ‘This has been an ordeal. You should go home now and rest. We’ll
